Search Results

Season 2006/07

18 films shown in 2006/07, ordered by overall ratings.

The Constant Gardener

18 Jan 2007 - 8pm - Plaza

USA/UK/Canada/Germany - 2005 - Fernando Meirelles - 129 mins

Summary: Handsomely located in Kenya, John Le Carré’s gripping and intelligent thriller is about a reserved English diplomat and his passionately radical young wife who harbours a potentially explosive secret. The film blends a tragic love story with social conscience, giving a human face to the West’s exploitation of the Third World

Ratings: A: 67 | B: 14 | C: 3 | D: 0 | E: 0 | Overall: 94.0

Sophie Scholl - The Final Days

05 Oct 2006 - 7pm - Corn Exchange

Germany/France - 2005 - Marc Rothemund - 120 mins

Summary: Sophie Scholl was a member of the White Rose student group committed to exposing the Nazi régime’s crimes against humanity. The film is based on original transcripts and its title allows no doubt about the outcome of her interrogation and trial. A claustrophobic yet uplifting tribute to courage and conscience

Ratings: A: 72 | B: 32 | C: 40 | D: 0 | E: 1 | Overall: 89.9

Tsotsi

02 Nov 2006 - 7pm - Corn Exchange

UK/South Africa - 2005 - Gavin Hood - 94 mins

Summary: A young and predatory tsotsi (Soweto slang for ghetto thug) is forced to control his anger and violence when he accidentally steals a baby as well as a car. This Oscar-winning South African film traces his gradual reassessment of his attitudes to other people

Ratings: A: 84 | B: 45 | C: 4 | D: 1 | E: 0 | Overall: 89.6

Seducing Doctor Lewis

22 Mar 2007 - 7pm - Corn Exchange

Canada - 2003 - Jean-François Pouliot - 108 mins

Summary: This Sundance Film Festival award-winning film is the beguiling and funny story of the ragtag community on a tiny, impoverished island who will do anything they can to persuade a young Montreal-based doctor to live in their town in order to get a much needed factory. But will they end up going too far?

Ratings: A: 86 | B: 19 | C: 11 | D: 1 | E: 3 | Overall: 88.3

Pierrepoint

19 Oct 2006 - 8pm - Plaza

UK - 2005 - Adrian Shergold - 90 mins

Summary: Timothy Spall gives an outstanding performance as Pierrepoint, Britain’s most prolific public executioner, whose moral certainties in his role as the state’s serial killer are undermined by the scale of his work following the Nuremberg trials and by the increasingly passionate campaign to abolish hanging

Ratings: A: 70 | B: 53 | C: 9 | D: 0 | E: 0 | Overall: 86.6

Separate Lies

07 Sep 2006 - 7pm - Corn Exchange

UK/USA - 2004 - Julian Fellowes - 85 mins

Summary: The season opens with an acute study of English moral and class divides, gradually revealed by the consequences of a hit-and-run accident in a small country town. Julian Fellowes provides a stylish and witty screenplay, and his assured direction draws faultless performances from his perfectly cast actors.

Ratings: A: 77 | B: 49 | C: 12 | D: 3 | E: 0 | Overall: 85.5

Transamerica

12 Oct 2006 - 8pm - Plaza

USA - 2005 - Duncan Tucker - 103 mins

Summary: Oscar nominated Felicity Huffman stars as a transsexual preparing for surgery who discovers she has a son in jail. Masquerading as a missionary, she bails him out and as they travel together across America, she becomes increasingly prim and maternal towards her surly and manipulative son. Funny and touching but never sentimental

Ratings: A: 52 | B: 69 | C: 13 | D: 3 | E: 0 | Overall: 81.0

Paradise Now

08 Feb 2007 - 7pm - Corn Exchange

France/Germany/Netherlands/Israel - 2005 - Hany Abu-Asad - 90 mins

Summary: Two Palestinian suicide bombers face moral and emotional dilemmas when a young woman discovers their plans just before the mission. As time runs out, the conflict between their personal feelings and their political and religious objectives becomes intolerable. A topical and highly charged thriller

Ratings: A: 40 | B: 31 | C: 15 | D: 3 | E: 0 | Overall: 80.3

A Common Thread

28 Sep 2006 - 7pm - Corn Exchange

France - 2004 - Eléonore Faucher - 88 mins

Summary: This beautiful French film observes the evolving relationship between a mother grieving for her child and an isolated pregnant young girl who is initially hesitant at the prospect of giving birth herself. An optimistic and sensitive film that is as delicate as the intricate needlework for which they share a passion

Ratings: A: 46 | B: 48 | C: 20 | D: 1 | E: 1 | Overall: 79.5

The Three Burials of Melquiades Estrada

08 Mar 2007 - 8pm - Plaza

USA/France - 2005 - Tommy Lee Jones - 121 mins

Summary: The body of the murdered Melquiades Estrada is buried twice, first in the desert and then by the authorities in a pauper’s grave. Motivated by a sense of injustice, Melquiades’ best friend Pete resolves to find his killer and force him to transport the body back to Mexico. An exceptionally moving and surprisingly funny film

Ratings: A: 43 | B: 40 | C: 24 | D: 1 | E: 0 | Overall: 78.9

Army in the Shadows

09 Nov 2006 - 7pm - Corn Exchange

France/Italy - 1969 - Jean-Pierre Melville - 136 mins

Summary: Based on the personal memories of French Resistance members and their activities and methods, Army in the Shadows focuses on courage, trust – and betrayal. Melville’s restrained and unsentimental direction reinforces the suspense and the tragedy inherent in the moral dilemmas faced daily by the freedom-fighters

Ratings: A: 40 | B: 42 | C: 23 | D: 2 | E: 1 | Overall: 77.3

Favela Rising

26 Oct 2006 - 7pm - Corn Exchange

USA - 2005 - Matt Mochary - 80 mins

Summary: An inspirational film that documents the evolution of the Brazilian band AfroReggae into a social movement and a local education project whose community work has helped improve the lives of thousands of residents of Rio’s favelas (slums) by providing an alternative to a culture of drugs and violence

Ratings: A: 30 | B: 53 | C: 22 | D: 5 | E: 0 | Overall: 74.5

The Squid and The Whale

01 Feb 2007 - 8pm - Plaza

USA - 2005 - Noah Baumbach - 81 mins

Summary: The domestic bliss of a Brooklyn family in the 1980s is rapidly replaced by bitterness and insecurity. This convincing drama treats the familiar theme of a family break-up and its impact on adolescent children with sympathy and humour, yet remains sharp and uncomfortable

Ratings: A: 36 | B: 59 | C: 35 | D: 4 | E: 1 | Overall: 73.1

Lemming

25 Jan 2007 - 7pm - Corn Exchange

France - 2005 - Dominik Moll - 130 mins

Summary: Like Moll’s previous film Harry, He's Here to Help (shown in the 2002 season), Lemming mixes suspense and satire to bizarre and disturbing effect. A bourgeois couple’s life takes a surreal and deadly turn when the boss and his wife – the menacing Charlotte Rampling - come to dinner

Ratings: A: 29 | B: 62 | C: 35 | D: 2 | E: 2 | Overall: 71.9

Bombon El Perro

07 Dec 2006 - 7pm - Corn Exchange

Argentina/Spain - 2004 - Carlos Sorin - 97 mins

Summary: The life of a jobless mechanic in the desolate flatlands of Patagonia, struggling to survive Argentina’s economic collapse, is transformed by the gift of a pedigree dog which – supposedly – has potential as a stud. A dry and delightful dog movie that is definitely not for children

Ratings: A: 13 | B: 42 | C: 19 | D: 4 | E: 0 | Overall: 70.5

Caché [Hidden]

22 Feb 2007 - 7pm - Corn Exchange

France/Austria/Germany/Italy - 2004 - Michael Haneke - 118 mins

Summary: The season’s third French thriller is a tense and unnerving study of guilt and denial at a personal level, set against the background of national guilt for the French occupation of Algeria. A perfect middle-class couple fall to pieces as the realisation that they are under secret surveillance develops into genuine threats

Ratings: A: 25 | B: 36 | C: 26 | D: 5 | E: 2 | Overall: 70.5

The Beat That My Heart Skipped

11 Jan 2007 - 7pm - Corn Exchange

France - 2005 - Jacques Audiard - 107 mins

Summary: A tense and involving thriller whose anti-hero is torn between the desire to use the musical gifts inherited from his late mother to develop a career as a concert pianist, or drifting into his father’s life of violent crime in the underworld of Paris. As the key audition approaches, the pressures build

Ratings: A: 21 | B: 50 | C: 45 | D: 7 | E: 2 | Overall: 66.2

Me and You and Everyone We Know

14 Sep 2006 - 8pm - Plaza

USA/UK/Japan - 2005 - Miranda July - 91 mins

Summary: As the all-embracing title suggests, this independent film is a web of interconnected stories of relationships. Set in a Los Angeles suburb, it explores, wittily and whimsically, the foibles of residents of all ages and inclinations. All the quirkiness you would expect from a multi-media artist turned director